Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/187

 OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 1S1 and the dark, frowning Peak itself became visible. The sun had no sooner risen, than Mark felt satisfied with his boat s performance. Objects began to come out of he mass of the mountain, which no longer appeared a pile of dark outline, without detail. He expected this, and uas even disappointed that his eyes could not command more, for he now saw that he had materially underrated the dis tance between the crater and the Peak, which must be nearer sixty than fifty miles. The channel between the group and this isolated mass was, at least, twelve leagues in width. These twelve leagues were now to be run, und our young navigator thought he had made fully three if them, when light returned. From that moment every mile made a sensible difference in the face of the mountain. Light and shadow first be came visible; then ravines, cliffs, and colours, came into the view. Each league that he advanced increased Mar i : admiration and awe ; and by the time that the boat was on the last of those leagues which had appeared so long, he began to have a more accurate idea of the sublime .ia- ture of the phenomenon that had been wrought so near him. Vulcan s Peak, as an island, could not be less than eight or nine miles in length, though its breadth did not much exceed two. Running north and south, it offered its narrow side to the group of the crater, which had de ceived its solitary observer. Yes ! of the millions on eaith, Mark Woolston, alone, had been so situated as to beco./ie a witness of this grand display of the powers of the fle- ments. Yet, what was this in comparison with the thou sand vast globes that were rolling about in space, objects so familiar as to be seen daily and nightly without raising - a thought, in the minds of many, from the created to fhe creator 1 Even these globes come and go, and men remain indifferent to the mighty change ! The wind had been fresh in crossing the strait, und Mark was not sorry when his pigmy boat came under the shadow of the vast cliffs which formed the northern ex tremity of the Peak. When still a mile distant, he thought he was close on the rocks ; nor did he get a perfectly true idea of the scale on which this rare mountain had b^en formed, until- running along at its base, within a hund ed VOL. I. 16